GUIDE: How To Make Your Home Feel Minimalist
02 August 2020
Over the years we have been seeing in home living magazines like Vogue Living and Home Beautiful a minimal look that is open, de-cluttered space that is organised in a simple yet clever manner.
This highly desirable look can be a difficult to achieve in reality, particularly if you have a full family with loved toys and trinkets collected over the years. But if you do have the feeling as though you are continually cleaning, and your home is just never really tidy – then it could be time to adopt the minimalist mindset.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A MINIMALIST HOME?
There are some key benefits as to why a minimalist home can lead you to a happier family life. It sure is less stressful and not as distracting as a dwelling full of clutter!
When you Google "minimalist homes" or "minimalist spaces", straight away you think that the interior design is amazing. If the exactly the same room was full of clutter, that is exactly all you would see - mess! A third reason is that a minimalist room is much easier to clean than one full of untidyness.
Here are 7 quick tips from us at Chateau Architects + Builders, to help you apply a mindset of minimalisation and put it into practice.
OUR 7 POINT GUIDE TO MINIMALISING YOUR HOME
Unfortunately, there are no perfect steps in order to create a minimalist home. We decided to break it up so it's not too overwhelming (and what you should focus on first) so you can crack on with it!
Here are our tips which we would offer anyone wanting to create that special minimalist style:
1. Start With the End in Mind
This is the fun part, think of how you would like to your home to look. Start a pinboard on Pinterest , and collect ideas for each space. Having this clear picture in mind will make it easier to make decisions on what to keep, and what to cull.
2. Have a Plan
To make the process easier, give yourself week, or months to go through things in a considered manner. The easiest way is to break things down. Room-by-room is the simplest way to do this, making the project more manageable. Give yourself time to go through each room too.
3. Get Help
Do you have a friend who is a super-organiser? Or a sweet child who loves to help? Getting the family involved in the process is an effective way to get things done, and keep yourself sane at the same time.
4. One Room at a Time
Unless you’re moving into a new home, it’s very challenging (and overwhelming) to re-order and entire house at once! Try to focus on one room, and then when you’re done, move onto another, then another and before you know it, you’ll have reorganised your entire house!
5. Clean Up The Area
Make sure your floors and walls are clear of mess. Everything should have a place, with the exception of furniture of course. Nothing should be stacked and nothing should be on the floor. Anything you can’t find a place for, and is not essential, then move onto the next step – declutter!
6. Declutter
The modern home is free from clutter, and is always immaculate! So the aspirational home magazines such as House, Country Mag would have us believe. Real homes are lived in, and with a growing family can often be messy but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t rid our home of unnecessary or old items.
Donate items which you deem superfluous or uneeded. Consider each item. Hold it in your hands. Is it something that you need? Are you holding on out of pure sentimental value? Does the item bring you happiness when you see it?
Keep what you know you cannot part with, and what also gives your home the look and feel you desire. To declutter means to store, throw or give things away. Br brave. You can’t hold on to everything forever!
7. Smart storage
If you still have a messy home after decluttering, it might be worth your while to consider smart storage options. You can use some amazingly clever options to hide away seasonal household items so they are out of view but still very accessible.
In some of our new home builds, our interior designers and architects focus on smart ways to include “hidden” storage spaces within the home design. Even if you aren’t building from scratch, you can implement many of the following ideas at a reasonably low cost:
• Staircase storage - this is a spin on the classic “under the stairs” storage option to stow away winter clothes or guest linen for example.
• Bathtub storage - There is a genius space which can be built around your very own bathtub. Perhaps you have limited bathroom storage options, but including storage around your bathtub so it is concealed is a great way to hide cleaning chemicals, additional toiletries or a kid’s rubber ducky!
• Kitchen island spaces - many modern homes have a kitchen island which is a smart way to open up space and to allow the area to be more social. In a number of our custom homes we have designed these islands to include large drawers and fold out cupboard doors on the "other side" of the island itself. What a great way to store kitchenware!
• Our personal favourite, the (rather extravagant) hidden wine cellar. Imagine at the press of a button, a door opens and a spiral staircase appears for you to select your favourite Penfolds Grange 2016 shiraz. Delicious!
Contact Sydney’s Leading Custom Home Builder Today!
We create custom homes that are designed for living and built to impress. Every luxury home build as unique as its owner be it traditional, contemporary or modern designer homes. We guide all of our clients through every step of the build process, to make bespoke home creation easy!
If you are researching for your new custom home build, we would love to help you get started. Contact our office on (02) 9634 6888 or send us an email at [email protected] and our friendly team will assist as best we can!